MAHICAN

The 'Mahicans' (also 'Mohicans') are a Native American tribe who have moved mostly to northeastern Wisconsin, U.S.,

"Mohican" (history), ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007, webpage:
EB-Mohicans.


"Mahican" (history), ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007, webpage:
EB-Mahican.

but who came from the Hudson River Valley (around Albany, NY), many then moving to Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s. Though similar in name, the Mahicans were not ''Mohegans'', a different Algonquian-speaking tribe living in eastern (upper Thames valley) Connecticut

"Mohegan" (history), ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007, webpage:
EB-Mohegan.

(who were jointly ruled by the Pequot tribe until 1637).

Contents

History

Notable Mahicans

External links

Bibliography

History

The Mahicans were living in and around the Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1609. Over the next hundred years, tensions between the Mahicans and the Mohawks as well as the Europeans caused the Mahicans to migrate eastward into western Massachusetts and Connecticut to the Hudson River. Many settled in the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts becoming known as the 'Stockbridge Indians'.
The Stockbridge Indians allowed Protestant Christian missionaries to live among them and converted to Christianity in the 18th Century. Although they fought on the side of the American colonists in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, they were dispossessed of their land and forced to move westward, first to New Stockbridge in the 1780s, on land allocated for them by the Oneidas, and later to Shawano County, Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s. In Wisconsin, they settled on reservations with the Munsee; the two were jointly known as 'Stockbridge-Munsee'. Today the reservation is known as that of the 'Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians' (Stockbridge-Munsee Community).
The first Christian Indian community in America was established by the Moravian church at the Mahican village of Shekomeko in 1740. The Moravian missionaries intent was to incorporate the native American people into European society through civilizing Christianity. They were so successful in their efforts and so diligently defended their Indians against white exploitation that the missionaries were hounded and finally forced out by the government.
The now extinct 'Mahican language' belonged to the Eastern Algonquian branch of the Algonquian language family.
James Fenimore Cooper's novel ''The Last of the Mohicans'' is based on the Mahican tribe but includes some cultural aspects of the Mohegans, a different Algonquian tribe living in eastern Connecticut. The novel takes place in the Hudson Valley, Mahican land, but some characters' names, such as Uncas, are Mohegan.

Notable Mahicans

★ Brent Michael Davids, composer

★ Anthony Kiedis Lead singer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers

★ Bill Miller, singer/songwriter

External links

★ Stockbridge-Munsee community

★ Mohican nation Stockbridge-Munsee band: Our history

★ Mohican languages (Native Languages of the Americas)

★ Hendrick Aupaumut (Mahican) (1757-1830)

★ Stockbridge-Munsee History

★ Mohican Indians

★ Stockbridge Timeline

★ Death In the Bronx The Stockbridge Indian Massacre in 1778 by Richard S. Walling-for reference only

★ Poem Mahican translation by Carl Masthay (linguist, Algonquianist)

Bibliography

★ Brasser, T. J. (1978). Mahican. In B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 198-212). Handbook of North American Indian languages (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

★ Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.

★ Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). ''The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment''. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-74624-5.

★ Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne. (1979). Introduction: North American Indian historical linguistics in current perspective. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), ''The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment'' (pp. 3-69). Austin: University of Texas Press.

★ Conkey, Laura E.; Bolissevain, Ethel; & Goddard, Ives. (1978). Indians of southern New England and Long Island: Late period. In B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 177-189). Handbook of North American Indian languages (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

★ Goddard, Ives. (1978). Eastern Algonquian languages. In B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 70-77). Handbook of North American Indian languages (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

★ Goddard, Ives. (1979). Comparative Algonquian. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), ''The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment'' (pp. 70-132). Austin: University of Texas Press.

★ Goddard, Ives. (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.

★ Goddard, Ives. (1999). ''Native languages and language families of North America'' (rev. and enlarged ed. with additions and corrections). [Map]. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press (Smithsonian Institute). (Updated version of the map in Goddard 1996). ISBN 0-8032-9271-6.

★ Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X (pbk).

★ Salwen, Bert. (1978). Indians of southern New England and Long Island: Early period. In B. G. Trigger (Ed.), ''Northeast'' (pp. 160-176). Handbook of North American Indian languages (Vol. 15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

★ Simpson, J. A.; & Weiner, E. S. C. (1989). ["Mohican" entry]. ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Online version).

★ Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978-present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.

★ Trigger, Bruce G. (Ed.). (1978). ''Northeast''. Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 15). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.